winter has landed and baby it's cold outside~!!~! when winter arrives i always think of it as soup season. the ultimate in comfort food when a bit of inner warmth is required. i love soup and am always on the look-out for new and tasty vegetarian soup recipes. there are certainly other fabulous comfort foods that i enjoy such as mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese (extra cheese please) and a huge mug of warm tea with honey added . . . maybe a scone on the side . . . you get the picture.

normally i do not think of carrots as comfort food but i've recently discovered that a carrot a day helps keep me warm on the inside too. let me explain: a couple of weeks ago i got quite annoyed at myself while looking at my studio walls full of small quilt tops that need to be completed. in general these are the ones that i began or collected for myself and had to put aside until there was "more time" . . . the ones that i would like to hand quilt and keep in a tiny dolly cupboard or trunk just for me, occasionally rotating two or three of them as house and/or wall decorations. some of these tops i made myself. some are bits that i purchased as unfinished blocks and tiny tops . . . my favorite ones are those made from vintage/antique fabrics and blocks, primitives that look as if a young person was acquiring sewing skills as they "played" with their dolls. clumsy stitching, naive patchwork and sometimes no real pattern at all . . . but oh-so-charming anyway~!~ i was looking at these small treasures and thinking about how cute they are, but as pretty as they are in the unfinished stages i would like to see them in their finished form. my fingers began itching to stitch one of them and then, as usually happens, i realized that i had many other obligations to fulfill. damn it. and then i hatched a little scheme so that i could work on these pieces guilt free.

i have decided that if i have kept my commitments to the best of my (fluctuating) ability/energy levels on any given day then in the evening i will thread three needles with thread and empty them into a project just for me . . . sort of a carrot/reward system that will allow me to see some progress on my own special small and doll quilts while still gaining ground on the projects i am doing for others. now i know three needles is not much stitching but i am seeing some very nice progress and think this may be working out rather well.
i have come to think of it as my daily carrot and am very comforted by this regular bit of self care. some evenings i'm just too tired to even pick it up or i only manage to get through one or two of those threaded needles but usually i get in at least a few stitches and frequently enjoy all three.

and best of all i have one of those primitive little vintage tops nearly full of my own hand quilting stitches and almost to the binding stage. i've decided to only show a sneak peek for now but may have a small hand quilted doll quilt to show you soon.

and someday maybe i'll have a whole bunch of "carrot" quilts to show off~!~

another comforting activity that i am trying to make more time for is reading. this happens to be the book i am reading now. actually i am re-reading this one. i read it years ago and loved it and recently decided to re-visit it. and it's as good (or better) than i remembered it~!~ if you haven't read this one you should definitely put it on your list. i'd love to hear your thoughts about it if you want to share them.

now all of this chat about comfort brings me nicely to my next announcement. i am offering a "winter comforts" giveaway. if you leave a comment on my blog on Halloween day (October 31) with the words "trick or treat" written somewhere within it i will put your name in the basket for a drawing that is all about the "treats" and not the "tricks"~!~ a small package of surprises to bring comfort to a lucky someone during this upcoming winter season.